Jacky Blot 'La Taille aux Loups' Brut Tradition Montlouis Sur Loire, France NV

Style: Sparkling Loire Wine

Vintage: NV

ABV: 12.5%

Region: Loire Valley 

Country: France

Varietals: 100% Chenin Blanc

Pairings: This wine needs paired with something with richness & texture!  That means foods that are naturally high in fat.  Marbled protein, or even vegetable dishes or starches made with duck fat or pork fat.  At home I've tried this wine with my husbands bone in pork chop with sweet potato side that had plenty of butter basting with sage & garlic! Don't overthink what the pairing should be just make sure it has some fat to play off the acid in this wine. 

Fun Facts: The future of Loire Valley Chenin Blanc is in laser-pure, dry, terroir-driven wines that challenge the greats of Burgundy and Champagne for precision, length, complexity and ageability. Jacky Blot of Domaine de la Taille Aux Loups and Domaine de la Butte has been leading this movement for decades. Jacky’s journey first started in 1988 when he purchased 8 hectares of 50 to 75 year old vines in the top sites of Montlouis-sur-Loire. Since that time, he has been curating the finest old vine vineyards to add to his domaine, with a complete commitment to organic farming. This hard work and passion has led many in the wine world to proclaim his dry and sparkling Chenin Blanc to be the among the most important benchmarks in the Loire Valley.

“Jacky’s wines, including his not-anymore Vouvray, are the perfect example: They’re bone-dry, less fruity than complex and austere. He believes sugar blurs chenin’s ability to transparently reveal its best qualities, which is why his winemaking is almost fanatically Burgundian, although he prefers to describe it as “the school of Montlouis.” He ferments all his whites in barrels. And rather than a cold, quick fermentation meant to highlight aromas, he borrows from Burgundy’s elite cadre, winemakers like Jean-François Coche (of Coche-Dury) and Jean-Marc Roulot (of Domaine Roulot): he exposes the grape must to oxygen before a long, slow fermentation and leaves the finished wine in steel tanks for months before bottling, which firms up the texture.”
-Jon Bonné